After three unsuccessful attempts, the new prototype of SpaceX’s Starship missile crashed again. Photo: 24 min.
After three failed attempts, the new prototype of SpaceX’s Starship missile crashed again on Tuesday during its fourth test session, company founder Elon Musk confirmed on Twitter.
He wrote “Something Important Happened” at the time of the descent. “We should know what it was like as soon as we can examine the fragments later in the day,” Musk joked, and added jokingly, “At least the hole is in the right place!”
The SN11 missile was launched from the company’s facility in South Texas at around 1:00 PM GMT and began its 10 km ascent, encountering some video glitches.
It was coming down to the roof when I lost the video signal again.
“We lost the clock at T plus five minutes 49 seconds,” SpaceX anchor John Innsbrucker said, referring to the amount of time since take off.
“It looks like we had another exciting test in Starship 11,” Jaffe added.
SN11 is the eleventh prototype spacecraft that SpaceX hopes will be able to fly One day on manned missions to the moon, Mars, and beyond.
It was also the fourth flight test attempt to return to Earth for a soft vertical landing.
SN8 and SN9, which were launched in December and February respectively, crashed on landing and exploded, while the SN10 managed to land successfully but detonated within minutes of testing on March 3.
Despite these failures, Analysts believe that SpaceX is gathering very valuable data that could help accelerate the development of its space program.
Ultimately, SpaceX plans to merge the Starship spacecraft with the Super Heavy rocket, creating a team that is completely reusable.
This final version will reach 120 meters in height and be able to carry 100 metric tons into Earth orbit, and is the most powerful launch vehicle ever developed.
(With info from 24matins)